In the early 1990’s, Yoshinobu Nishizaki produced a sequel to Space Battleship Yamato, set hundreds of years after the original. He wanted to take advantage of the popular OAV market as well as cross over to the American mainstream market. Yamato 2520 was to chronicle the adventures of the 18 starships to bear the name and their continual battles against the ‘Seiren Federation’.

Replacing Leiji Matsumoto’s traditional Yamato designs, American ‘futurist’ designer Syd Mead (2010, Blade Runner) created the conceptual art for the new series. The series was just getting started when, Nishizaki’s production company went bankrupt. This left the series incomplete, leaving the fans with more questions than answers about “Yamato 2520”.